Armida at Wexford Festival Opera by the Sea
I’ve never been a great admirer of Opera as lived experience, the social ritual of dressing in dinner jacket and black tie like an oversized penguin, followed by a display of outlandish stop-go exaggerated gestures, bawling and screeching and that's just the audience! I love the sound of Opera, the human voice orchestrated with symphonic rhythms as a dramatic, tender or moving experience but the full immersive shock has usually been too much, for me. Happily I had no need to concern myself about such things when I was distracted by travelling and city life. If I wanted Opera, there was plenty to be heard on stereo, if I felt so inclined. These days I spend much more time in the country, in Wexford, a short drive from the Opera House. This made little impact on me during the years of pandemic lockdowns but this year the festival made a big splash announcing itself in unmistakable terms. Nobody in Wexford can regard themselves as properly civilised without at least a bluffer’s acqu